Perhaps because he spent his entire adulthood and much of his youth marginalized and not fully accepted by any particular culture or religion, and perhaps also because of the great deal of traveling he did, Olaudah Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa, as he was renamed) is able to appreciate other religions and cultures in a way… Continue reading Olaudah Equiano’s religious values→

In Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey," she frequently comments on novels and their value, either by speaking directly to the reader as narrator, as at the end of chapter five, or through the characters within the novel, such as avid novel consumers Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney. The latter is especially unashamed to have read hundreds… Continue reading What does Jane Austen really think of the novel?→

When Frances Burney first published Evelina, she did so anonymously, according to Vivien Jones in her chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Frances Burney, "to identify herself at the start of her career with a male rather than a female novel tradition, with Fielding, Richardson and Smollett rather than Lennox, Griffith and Brooke: in other words,… Continue reading The ‘female intellectual’ in 18C print culture→

For "a late developer where reading and writing were concerned," Frances Burney certainly made up for lost time in her subsequent career as a writer (perhaps due to her skill at mimicking others, including their language). Throughout the novel, the editor's notes have Burney consistently making new use of words and phrases. She is, in… Continue reading Evelina can say no — and lots of other things, too→

Henry Fielding's "Shamela" is a vastly different piece of writing compared with Richardson's "Pamela" upon first inspection. The language alone is more colloquial, more crass, and it appears to merely be a satifical rip-off of the original novel (one of many copycat publications surfacing at the time, apparently). However, upon looking more closely, Fielding's work is deeper… Continue reading A perfect fit→

In Samuel Richardson's Pamela, the low-born Pamela exemplifies virtue in all her thoughts, words and actions. She is honest and pure and refuses to be seduced by Mr. B's early attempt to make her his mistress. She maintains her virginal purity, even when her master attempts to sexually assault her after she refuses his initial affections.… Continue reading ‘Pamela’ and Nietzsche’s master-slave morality→

Delariviere Manley, in the preface to The Secret History, of Queen Zarah, and the Zarazians (1705), suggests that British "histories" of the 18th century, which "are much more agreeable to the Brisk and Impetuous Humor of the English," should follow a somewhat rigid set of guidelines so as to be most appeasing to the desired audience. These… Continue reading Delariviere Manley’s novel vs. Samuel Richardson’s ‘Pamela’→